A Canadian man jumped onto a polar bear to save lots of his spouse from a violent assault on Tuesday morning in Ontario. The chilling encounter occurred when the couple, residing within the distant northern group of Fort Severn First Nation, left their house at round 5 am to seek for their canines.
As they approached their driveway, a polar bear abruptly lunged towards the lady. The person acted swiftly, leaping onto the animal in an effort to guard the lady. “The lady slipped to the bottom as her husband leap[ed] onto the animal to stop its assault,” mentioned the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service in a press release. The bear retaliated, attacking the person and inflicting critical however non-life-threatening accidents to his legs and arms.
In the course of the wrestle, a neighbour who heard the commotion rushed to assist and shot the bear a number of instances. Police, responding to experiences of gunshots, later discovered the bear useless within the woods after it had retreated from the realm. The person was taken to a close-by group nursing station the place he obtained medical remedy, The Guardian reported.
Authorities are persevering with to patrol the realm to make sure the security of the group and stop any additional bear encounters.
Fort Severn, situated on the southern shores of Hudson Bay, is a small Swampy Cree First Nation group that’s usually within the path of polar bear migration.
Alysa McCall, a scientist at Polar Bear Worldwide, famous that polar bear assaults on people are uncommon however are likely to happen when the animal is hungry, younger, or unwell. Usually the bears are removed from human settlements, preferring to spend their time at sea looking ice seals. However local weather change has led to temperature fluctuations, breaking apart ice and in some instances, driving bears inland to search for meals, Ms McCall defined to The BBC.
Professor Andrew Derocher from the College of Alberta additionally highlighted the rising unpredictability of polar bears as local weather change impacts their pure habitats. “Every bear type of comes with its personal particular person persona and its personal physique situation,” Derocher advised The Guardian. “However as a common rule, polar bears will turn out to be extra unpredictable as environmental situations change.”